Kearney interview questions

Overall it was tough, coming from someone who only had 3 weeks of practice casing. First-round was two 45 minute interviews, 1 case, and 1 behavioral, back to back. Final round was three 45 minute interviews, 2 cases, and 1 behavioral, back to back. I struggled with the cases likely due to lack of experience. The behavioral was typical but lots of follow up questions were asked.

Hi everyone, I have 4 years of professional experience in financial boutiques and never worked for a management consultancy firm. The whole case study concept is very new to me and I still really enjoyed it and learnt a lot from Kearney employees. Whoever is reading this please ignore all the horrible things people say: the HR are the kindest people, very hard working and overloaded with things to do, they have feelings and empathy. They are only humans, so if you are feeling “ghosted” it is nothing personal, just like yourself they get tired, have burnout times and have a family to look after. I went through two rounds of case interviews, the 1st one was with 2 consultants: - 2 behavioural/skill based and 2 case studies: - 1 on commercial banking (straight forward questions regarding financial performance improvement and cost reduction. My biggest advice is to pay attention to the numbers, and if the numbers seem too complex to compute ask to simplify or round to whole numbers. Consultants are super kind, patient and are happy to help you); - 1 on chemical fertilisers for oil companies, where the demand is driven by the car manufacturers ( I was shared a screen with some numerical data in excel like format, again my advice on calculations ask to simplify difficult numbers and calculate your numbers in a table format, it really helps because you often have to refer back to your calculations). My second round was with a principal and a senior manager, again the kindest people, this company has a holy grail of human capital. Again both consistent of a behavioural and 2 cases. - 1 case study was about opening a fish and chips shop in Oxford vs working in Kearney, so my task was was to compare how much the principal would earn running the shop vs working in Kearney, setting the intangibles aside. Questions were about calculating profits and market sizing. Stay focussed and don’t be nervous, regardless of who is interviewing. The company culture has a very low ego vibe, and they are happy to help you, so ask questions. - 1 interview with a senior manager was about looking at financial performance of a dairy company and trying to identify why they have been underperforming. It was a mix of a company and a market related problem. I was shared an excel table with revenues for different products and had to provide insights on the data. I was running out of time and got very anxious regarding my performance. Regardless, of my silly mistakes, the manager was really kind and tried to point me in the right direction throughout the case exercise. Please don’t worry, and don’t make my mistake! Stay calm and focussed, and don’t hesitate to show team spirit, regardless of who is interviewing you. I hope it is helpful and good luck!